Has your area, or where you were brought up, changed ecconomicaly, industrialy, in yo

[Ian Gentles]

I grew up in Scottish steel country, and worked in steel, before college, for ten years. We thought it would never end, change, but it did and steel industry is completely gone. Has area you live in, or grew up in, changed economically, in your life time?

[Hans Deventer]

Has area you live in, or grew up in, changed economically, in your life time?

No. I was born in Rotterdam. Back then, it was one of the world's largest harbours, today, it still is.
The change would be that container transport has become much more important.

[Roland Hearn]

I grew up in the city of Brisbane, back then it was a city of around 600,000 people. It was known as a big country town. It was also considered the poor cousin of the big southern cities of Sydney and Melbourne. The tallest building in town was the 13 story spire of the city council chambers and had been since the 1920's. In the last 30 years it has become the fastest growing city in Australia and from some reports the second fastest growing city in the western world. It has a metro population of nearly 2 million people. It still has managed to keep some of the feeling of being a little more laid back then most big cities but it has changed a lot in many ways.

[Mike Schutz]

I grew up in a working class section of Baltimore. That neighborhood is now one of the poorest, and most dangerous, sections of the city.

Where I currently live, 45 minutes west of Philadelphia, was largely a rural farming community just a few years ago. Now it is a suburb of Philadelphia and Wilmington, DE, as the farms are being developed into communities of large homes. Where a generation ago the farm workers were coming from the US south (Tennessee and the Carolinas) to find work, now the farm and small industry workers are from Mexico.

[Bob Evans]

I live in Michigan. The auto industry is changing as many of you know and the state is still trying to figure out what has happened. Nothing has filled the gap as of yet.

[Meghan Schoonover]

I was raised in SE British Columbia. The biggest industry was/is a lead smelter, along with softwood lumber mills. The smelter employs many less people and the biggest mill near my house is closed. The one nearby that does plywood is still around. The train tracks are ripped up, too, that used to be used for the mills and smelter, although it seems there are movements to make them into trails for biking, 4x4s, etc. Tourism has always been big and seems to be very important now.

Here (http://www.waterfallswest.com/gallery/order.html?ipic=..%2Fimages%2Fbeaver-falls.jpg&iprc=00.00&inum=BC004&ireturn=bc.html&x=45&y=49&ides=Beaver+Falls+%231) is a picture of the falls you can see from my cousin's back porch. The young man who took the picture and I grew up in church together. Here is another beautiful picture he took of the river (http://www.waterfallswest.com/gallery/order2.html?ipic=images%2Fcolumbia-river-2.jpg&iprc=00.00&inum=BC012&ireturn=bc.html&x=57&y=44&ides=Columbia+River+%232). You can see why tourism is big!

[Gina Stevenson]

I was raised in SE British Columbia .......

Here (http://www.waterfallswest.com/gallery/order.html?ipic=..%2Fimages%2Fbeaver-falls.jpg&iprc=00.00&inum=BC004&ireturn=bc.html&x=45&y=49&ides=Beaver+Falls+%231) is a picture of the falls you can see from my cousin's back porch. The young man who took the picture and I grew up in church together. Here is another beautiful picture he took of the river (http://www.waterfallswest.com/gallery/order2.html?ipic=images%2Fcolumbia-river-2.jpg&iprc=00.00&inum=BC012&ireturn=bc.html&x=57&y=44&ides=Columbia+River+%232). You can see why tourism is big!

Oh, my goodness! From their back porch!? Wouldn't even need to buy one of those fountains to have that soothing sound; just open the door slightly, and hear your natural surroundings. Wow! Cool place ... but what about winter? Are their far enough west that it's tempered by the Pacific, or ............ ???

[Meghan Schoonover]

It's pretty far east, actually, nearly above Idaho, so about 9 hrs. from the Pacific. The climate is very different from the coast, as it goes up over the mountains, and goes across a rain shadow "desert"; it's actually closer to the Rockies than the Pacific. It's a pretty decent winter there...they're still under a few feet of snow, while my tulips are 5 in. high!

If you look at this map (http://www.travel.bc.ca/map/) (scroll down a bit), you'll see the "BC Rockies" section in purple to the east...my hometown is the very SW corner of that purple (you can click on the purple and see "Trail" there...that's the town I graduated HS from, grew up about 20 mins. east of that).

(edited to add...if you click on the purple you can see where I travelled to for piano lessons for many years, Kimberley, about 3.5 hrs. to the NE).

[Gina Stevenson]

Wow! Sounds like a long ways to go for piano lessons. Must've been someone special from whom you learned to go that far for it ... you weren't so much in the boonies that there was no one closer, were you? ;)

[did check the maps, BTW]

[Meghan Schoonover]

rotflol, nope not that much in the boonies, and plenty of teachers in my area. I was just fortunate to live relatively close to a nationally recognized teacher and so was able to study with him from about 6th grade on. I actually studied with a local teacher weekly, an organ teacher weekly, and also a theory teacher weekly (when preparing for theory exams), and then made the treck over there twice a month. Crazy, eh? ;) I don't even want to know what my folks shelled out for lessons!! :eek: You'd think I'd be a better pianist for the investment in my education. :laughing

eta: Here (http://www.vpss.ca/faculty.html#Arne) is a blurb about my teacher. In addition to teaching, adjudicating, and performing, he is highly involved in helping with Cambodian refugees and also makes frequent trips to Cambodia to help with rebuilding the classical and indigenous arts that were so decimated during the Khmer Rouge atrocities.

[Kathy O'Connor]

Beautiful pictures! God's creation! :)

[Greg Farra]

I grew up in Columbus, Ohio. It's one of the few 'rust belt' cities that has grown over the last several decades. We have a diverse economy, so we're not dependent on one industry to provide jobs.

[David Showalter]

I grew up in Scottish steel country, and worked in steel, before college, for ten years. We thought it would never end, change, but it did and steel industry is completely gone. Has area you live in, or grew up in, changed economically, in your life time?

Ian, I grew up in the midwest on a farm. The rural farming communities of our land have been turned upside down, inside out, and left bleeding and dying. My home town has but one business left, a self serve gas station. Their school has 8 - 10 kids in each class. They are on their last breath.

[Dale Cozby]

I grew up in inner city Dallas. you could see downtown from my yard. The neighborhood had already made the transition from mostly middle class to mostly poverty hispanic during my years as a kid. I grew up as the minority in all my schools. Culture shock first hit me when I went to an almost all white upper middle class college in Olathe Kansas.

Today my old neighborhood school is 98% hispanic with about 45% non-english speaking. When I left it was still about 7-8% white and the english speakers were slightly higher, maybe 75%.

The homes as a whole are a bit more run down, but a few have been renovated by yuppies enjoying living so close to downtown. You can usually tell those, they are the ones with new brick walls and iron gates and security lighting around thier perimeters.

So it has changed some but not that much....I think I have changed alot more than it has.

My poor wife grew up on a midwest farm...she really had the culture shock when we moved back to Dallas. But she is a champion at it now.

[Gina Stevenson]

:laughing

eta: Here (http://www.vpss.ca/faculty.html#Arne) is a blurb about my teacher. In addition to teaching, adjudicating, and performing, he is highly involved in helping with Cambodian refugees and also makes frequent trips to Cambodia to help with rebuilding the classical and indigenous arts that were so decimated during the Khmer Rouge atrocities.

OK, I'm not familiar with ETA that starts the above, BTW. Thanks.

Now here's a blurb re my fave teacher ... one I had long after I had a good one here locally [she was one strict teacher, but that helped! ;)] for a lot of years: http://www.nielsonandyoung.com/young.html

What things I'd let become lax after quitting the other in high school somewhere [tho' I kept playing a lot], he shaped up ... thank God! ;)

[Meghan Schoonover]

Love the pic with the organ!

eta = edited to add

[Roy Richardson]

I live in Michigan. The auto industry is changing as many of you know and the state is still trying to figure out what has happened. Nothing has filled the gap as of yet.

That is a very kind assessment of what the Governor and Legislature are doing. I envisioned more of a Keystone Kops process.